I'm tech guy, I love tech, I like reading about parameters for every electronics what I'm buying. My last camera was Canon S3, it was perfect for me but now I have no time in life, so I want compact camera, also my girls will use this new camera sometimes (no way before that she didnt press wrong button on S3 before she taked a photo).

I will make some videos, but if it's 720 or 1080 doesn't matter for me as it won't be VGA resolution.
Price is not an issue. But mirrorless ILC will be bigger for me. I won't need GPS at all.

My first candidates was S100 and LX5 because I want 1/1.7" sensor to have a better low level pictures than traditional compact camera.
Then, S100 very low battery life, flash power is nothing extra and it's slow when focusing.
So LX5, but, little too much buttons (coz other people from my family will use it, I can predict they will press or touch the buttons on it's lens by mistake, but not a big deal), it has the removable cap (bleh), its little bigger so not a compact camera in fact, but 400 shots for 1 battery, fast focusing, nice..
But some trustworthy review web pages wrote that it's a good camera, some wrote that S100 is better than LX5, I spend full 2 days deciding about this.

Because I was desperate about this, I moved to the small compact cameras, so Lumix TZ25 (ZS15) (at least I know it's better than TZ30/ZS20) and Powershot 260. Powershot 260 looks like nothing especially good, old 230 should be better choice but 230 doesn't have HD video. So from this probably TZ25/ZS15. But again some sites wrote it's good camera (maybe a compact camera of 2012), some sites and reviews wrote it's really mid quality.. oh yes and bad in low light, but as for all panasonics focusing is fast and the auto mode is good.

But then.. it should has bad low light performance, also some test video from a concert with LX5 and some 1/2.33" sensor camera on youtube... and I'm back with S100 and LX5. And then the cap and size on LX5, and not always excelent review, then battery and slow focusing on S100.
On one site LX5 is better, on next site S100 is king... And I'm reading it over and over for 3 days now.

So... anyone can help me? Best will be if someone, who has at least few weeks experience with all these cameras?

Powershot 260 looks like nothing especially good, old 230 should be better choice but 230 doesn't have HD video.

The SX230 has Full HD (1080p).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel2

and I'm back with S100 and LX5. And then the cap and size on LX5, and not always excelent review, then battery and slow focusing on S100.
On one site LX5 is better, on next site S100 is king... And I'm reading it over and over for 3 days now.

So... anyone can help me? Best will be if someone, who has at least few weeks experience with all these cameras?

many thanks ..

The LX5, S100, and XZ-1 are all great cameras, but they all have their shortcomings as well. You simply need to decide which best suits your needs and which shortcomings you can most easily live with. I have owned the Canon S95 for about 1.5 years and for the most part have been quite satisfied. It's lens isn't as good as the LX5 or XZ-1 and it does indeed have slower focusing than my Panasonic cams. In fact, it has trouble focusing at all in some situations. The lens also shuts down quick as you zoom so I have to shoot wide in many instances to keep the ISO low.

However, the IQ w/ the S95 is still very good. Most importantly though, I can fit the S95 in my pocket, which is something I can't do with the other 2 aforementioned cams. To me, this issue is paramount as I like to travel light when I am hiking, walking, biking, etc. The last thing I want is a camera hanging around my neck, a camera bag strapped to my waist, or anything else that is going to make movement less pleasant.

The bottom line is just that we all have different needs and only you can decide what is of utmost importance to you.

__________________Disclaimer: I take photos of life rather than live to take photos and my opinions of cameras are reflected accordingly.